muse-poetique-musique (wkend digest edtn.): alien me, music... have spacesuit, will travel

In a message dated 2004:02:19 10:21:58 PM, larkinam.com writes:

>It makes Bons Sens to Avoir Un Ban Temps and Play Some Music!

"Sound as an isolated object of reproduction, call it our collective memory
bank... Any sound can be you." - DJ Spooky that Subliminal Kid (a.k.a. Paul D.
Miller)

In a message dated 2004:02:19 12:23:57 PM, BooRad*** quotes:

> Amplitude
>
> Amplitude is the order of the universe.
> If you study the language of the instruments
> that measure these things
> you might better conduct
> your own earth bound symphony.
>
> Little sings silent in this night;
> we rush at a thousand thousand decibels per second,
> swing on the outside of the arm
> the upbeat, pizzacatta
> ah, yes let the strings enter, here
> let the violas and cellos add a deeper note.
>
> I know you’ve heard it late at night
> a slight treble of breath,
> the highest frequency of dying light.
> Triangulated, you and I are always expanding.
>
> You have seen the same star as I.
> From your latitude it hangs a bit higher
> but the arc is the same,
> like the blood that beats in my veins
> beats in your veins.
> We share chemistry.
>
> And the timpani
> of what we are drumming down
> in this accelerated dark
> illuminates the spiral search of your arm
> as it snakes around my clarinet waist.
>
> My reed form sings.
>
> Jennifer Ley

Subterranean Homesick Alien ( by Radiohead )

The breath of the morning I keep forgetting.
The smell of the warm summer air.
I live in a town where you can't smell a thing,
You watch your feet for cracks in the pavement.

Up above aliens hover making home movies for the folks back home,
Of all these weird creatures who lock up their spirits,
Drill holes in themselves and live for their secrets.
They're all uptight.

I wish that they'd swoop down in a country lane,
Late at night when I'm driving.
Take me on board their beautiful ship,
Show me the world as I'd love to see it.
I'd tell all my friends but they'd never believe,
They'd think that I'd finally lost it completely.
I'd show them the stars and the meaning of life.
They'd shut me away.
But I'd be alright.
I'm just uptight.

New World ( by Bjork )

Train-whistles, sweet clementine
Blueberries, dancers in line
Cobwebs, a bakery sign

Ooooh - a sweet clementine
Ooooh - dancers in line
Ooooh

If living is seeing
I'm holding my breath
In wonder, I wonder
What happens next?
A new world
A new day to see
See, see

I'm softly walking on air
Halfway to heaven frontier
Sunlight unfolds in my hair

Ooooh - I'm walking on air
Ooooh - to heaven frontier
Ooooh

If living is seeing
I'm holding my breath
In wonder, I wonder
What happens next?
A new world
A new day to see
See, see ...

"... Music is a herald, for change is inscribed in noise faster than it
transforms society. ... Listening to music is listening to all noise, realizing
that its appropriation & control is a reflection of power, that is essentially
political." - Jacques Attali, _Noise: The Political Economy of Music_

In a message dated 2004:02:19 06:56:26 PM, John Cowan observes:

>In the right context, you can inflect almost any adjective, as in
>the phrase "beautifullest ladies" in _The Princess Bride_ (of course,
>S. Morgenstern's English may have left something to be desired in this
>case), or Sam Gamgee's remark about his daughter that "I think she is
>very beautiful, and is going to be beautifuller still."
>
>But both these forms are decidedly abnormal English. A good half of the
>Google hits for "beautifullest" are for "most beautifullest", which is
>abnormal by any standard, and "most beautiful" dominates "beautifullest"
>by a thousand to one; for "more beautiful" vs. "beautifuller", it's
>two thousand.

http://www.china.org.cn/english/LI-e/25799.htm

“Fossil Music” to Amaze Audiences

A performance of what is described by some as "fossil music" will be
staged by a band of old Naxi people at the Forbidden City Concert Hall in Beijing
this Friday and Saturday.
This traditional type of music has been well and truly kept alive for
thousands of years. It is an ancient music preserved by the Naxi people, an
ethnic group from Lijiang, a remote town in Southwest China's Yunnan Province.

The concert will consist of two types of fossil music:

The first is called "Baisha Xiyue" (White Sands and Elegant Music), which
is played on traditional string and woodwind instruments.
According to Xuan Ke, head of the band, it was actually a Naxi requiem
dedicated to warriors lost in a legendary battle between the Naxi and Pumi
tribes.
Legend has it that a Naxi princess was married to a Pumi prince. But her
father wanted to conquer the Pumi region and started a war. The princess tried
to stop the war but was confined to an island and died of a broken heart when
she heard that her husband had died in the battle.

The other type is "Dongjing Music" (Cave Scripture Music) which
originated from Taoist and Buddhist ritual music and was "imported" to Naxi from
Jiangsu and Sichuan provinces after the Tang Dynasty (AD 618-907).

The music was very popular during the 13th and 14th century, but was
forgotten and deserted by most Chinese in the central region of the country.
Fortunately, it has been well preserved ever since by the Naxi musicians.
In 1981, Xuan Ke, the son of a Tibetan mother and a Naxi father,
organized some old Naxi musicians and established the Dayan Naxi Ancient Music
Association.
They stepped out of Lijiang to perform around the country to introduce
"fossil music" to more and more people. Early in 1998 their debut at the
Forbidden City Concert Hall amazed Beijing music critics and fans.
The musicians also play rare and ancient instruments.
A Persian lute, called sugudu in the Naxi language, was originally an
Egyptian stringed instrument which was adopted and modified by the ancient
Persians. It made its way across India into China's Tibet, Sichuan Province and
finally into the hands of the Naxi.
Xuan said: "The sugudu makes the music more colorful and has become an
indispensable part of the band."
The band is also proud of its 400-year-old pipa, which is widely said to have
been given to the Naxi as a gift by a virtuoso musician disguised as a
rugged, old man, in the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911).

A Naxi instrument, the bobo, is actually the archetype of the pipa and
many other instruments, including the 10-chiming-gongs and the bamboo huqin with
its human face.
Some of the music and the instruments are old, along with some of the
performers whose ages range from 54 to 82.
He Shangchao, one of the oldest musicians in the band, said: "Playing the
music is a good way to cultivate yourself. When playing sacred music, we must
sit still like a Buddha, forget about our daily lives and get totally
immersed in the music."
Just like He, most of the performers in the band have been playing their
instruments since a very young age.
"When they were young, they loved to play music just like today's youngsters
fascinated by rock'n'roll or R&B," said Xuan.
However, nowadays, young people in Lijiang are also strongly influenced
by pop culture just like most of their peers in other parts of the country.
"It is difficult for people of my age to learn about the smooth and
ancient music," said He Xiufen, 24, who now sings the vocals for the band.
Meanwhile, how to pass on the music has become an important issue for the
Naxi people.
There is no formal or systematic program to teach those interested in their
type of music and those who do want to learn have to sit by old musicians to
pick up some instruction and tips.

(China Daily January 24, 2002)
Dongba Culture to Get Protection
Largest Astronomical Base to Be Built
Lijiang to Build World-Class Tourism Area
Minority Ethnic Group Culture Under Protection
Musical Masters Gather in Beijing
Importance of Cultural Preservation Emphasized
Mothers, Babies to Enjoy Better Health Care in "Shangri-La"
Dongba Scripture Preserved Copyright © China Internet Information Center. All
Rights Reserved
E-mail: webmaster@... Tel: 86-10-68326688

---
Hanuman Zhang, _Gomi no seito/sensei_ [HighSchool-level Student/Master of
junk]

"To live is to scrounge, taking what you can in order to survive. So,
since living is scrounging, the result of our efforts is to amass a pile of
rubbish." - Chuang Tzu/Zhuangzi, China, 4th Century BCE

"The most beautiful order is a heap of sweepings piled up at random." -
Heraclitus, Greece, 5th Century BCE

"...So what is life for? Life is for beauty and substance and sound and
colour; and even those are often forbidden by law [socio-cultural conventions].
. .Why not be free and live your own life? Why follow other people's rules
and live to please others?..." ~Lieh-Tzu/Liezi, Taoist Sage (c. 450- 375 BCE)

"Taoism in a nutshell: Shit Happens. Roll with the Punches. Hang 10 - Go
with the Flow!" - anon. California surferBeatnik, c.1950's/1960's

Voices of the Past:
http://advancement.uark.edu/pubs/Research_Frontiers/fall_2001/05_Feature1.html

At its peak, the Tang Dynasty (618-906 CE) of China a mixture of cultural
influences were reflected in the music of the times.People traveled from
other countries, including Japan, Mongolia, India, Korea & Turkey, to learn about
the Tang culture.But the multi-racial, multi-cultural era waned at the end of
the Tang.China,one of the greatest cultural & military powers in history,
began to close in on itself, the rulers closed the country's borders - fearing the
destruction of their civilization.The rich, diverse music of the Tang, along
with that of the surrounding cultures, was lost or destroyed. Bits have been
found & the rest is theory & re-construction...

"The whole world of musics and instruments lives around us....I am
interested in a 'transethnic,' a planetary music." - Lou Harrison ("...Europe is a
region he called Northwest Asia...")

The power of education & culture to transcend social and political
differences is still largely untapped...

Proud to be a Race Trader! Race & Culture Mixin' is the Future!